184 Chapter IV. 



psychology is able to confuse instinctive intention and 

 instinctive foresight with intelligent intention and 

 intelligent foresight. This is made evident by the 

 following facts. The beetles of the genus Atemeles 

 have their larvae reared by certain FormVa-species, 

 Atemeles emarginatus by F. fusca, Atemeles paradoxus 

 by F. rufibarbis, Atemeles pubic ollis by F. rufa, Ate- 

 meles pratensoides by F. pratensis. The young Ate- 

 meles having successfully reached their full develop- 

 ment, either quit the Formica nests or are driven out of 

 them. They then move over to Myrmica rubra 1 and 

 spend the greater part of their lives in the nests of 

 these ants, by whom they are licked and fed. Only in 

 spring, in the mating season, they return to their 

 respective Formica species, where they allow their 

 offspring to be reared at the expense of the ant-larvae. 

 For whom, then, are these Formica species nursing 

 the young Atemeles? Not for themselves, but for 

 the Myrmica species. The only consequence of their 

 adopting the Atemeles-larvae is the immense damage 

 inflicted on their own eggs and larvae by these vora- 

 cious changelings. Where now is "the faculty of 

 intelligently taking the future into account," with 

 which Marshall credits his ants? For thousands of 

 years the Formica again and again have had the sad 

 experience, that the pains bestowed on these beetle- 

 larvae are but "love's labor lost." 2 I believe that if 



*) This older collective name comprises Myrmica scarbrinodis, 

 laevinodis, ruginodis, sulcinodis and rugulosa. 



2 ) The same applies to the education of the larvae of the* North 

 American Xenodusa in the nests of Formica species; for, the Xenodusa 

 are found as fullgrown beetles with other ants, especially of the genus 

 Camponotus. 



